Confidential Committee of Privileges Third Report
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CONFIDENTIAL COMMITTEE OF PRIVILEGES THIRD REPORT (THIRTEENTH LOK SABHA) I Introduction and Procedure I, the Chairman of the Committee of Privileges, having been authorised by the Committee to submit the Report on their behalf, present this their Third Report to the House on the question of privilege given notice of by Shri Jaswant Singh Bishnoi, member against railway officials for having cancelled his confirmed Ist class A/c railway reservation in 2461, Mandore Express from Delhi to Jodhpur on 11.8.2000. 2. The Committee held 5 sittings. The relevant minutes of these sittings form part of the Report and are appended hereto. 3. At their first sitting held on 12 September, 2001, the Committee considered the matter. The Committee decided that Shri Jaswant Singh Bishnoi, member, be requested to appear before them on 24 September, 2001 for giving oral evidence. 4. At their second sitting held on 24 September, 2001, the Committee examined on oath Shri Jaswant Singh Bishnoi, MP. The Committee also decided that Chief Commercial Manager (General), Northern Railway, Chief Commercial Manager, Northern Railway and General Manager, Northern Railway be asked to appear before them on 9 October, 2001 for oral evidence. 5. At their third sitting held on 9 October, 2001, the Committee examined on oath Sarvashri P.C. Sharma, Chief Commercial Manager (General), Northern Railway, I.J. Malhotra, Chief Commercial Manager, Northern Railway and S. Dasrathy, General Manager, Northern Railway. The Committee also directed Shri Dasrathy to have the policy regarding allotment of Emergency Quota (EQ) for rail reservations reviewed by Railway Board within 15 days or such further time as they might require, to ensure that situations requiring change of Emergency Quota once released were avoided. 6. At their fourth sitting held on 18 June,2002, the Committee examined on oath Shri I.I.M.S Rana , Chairman, Railway Board and Shri M.C. Srivastva, Member (Traffic), Railway Board. 7. At their fifth sitting held on 17 October, 2002, the Committee considered the draft Report and adopted it. II Facts of the case 8. On 16 August, 2000, Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, MP raised the matter regarding cancellation of confirmed 1st class A/c railway reservation of Shri Jaswant Singh Bishnoi, MP in 2461 Mandore Express from Delhi to Jodhpur on 11 August, 2000 and requested that the matter be referred to the Committee of Privileges. Several other members also expressed their displeasure over this incident. Minister of Parliamentary Affairs suggested that if the House so desired the matter could be referred to the Committee of Privileges. 9. The Deputy Speaker, who was in the Chair after taking sense of the House, referred the matter to the Committee of Privileges for examination, investigation and report. 10. Subsequently, on 16 August, 2000, Shri Jaswant Singh Bishnoi, MP gave a notice of question of privilege against the railway officials for having cancelled his confirmed 1st class A/C railway reservation in 2461 Mandore Express while proceeding to Jodhpur on 11 August, 2000. 11. The member in his notice of question of privilege inter-alia, stated as follows:- (i) That he had given a requisition at Parliament House railway booking office for arranging 1 st class A/c Coupe for his journey along with his spouse from Delhi to Jodhpur by 2461 Mandore Express leaving Delhi on 11.8.2000. The reservation was done on PNR No.242-3809896. (ii) He was allotted a 1st class A/c Coupe out of the Emergency Quota of the railways. (iii) After attending the House, when he along with his wife reached Delhi railway station, he and his wife occupied the coupe allotted to him. After some time, some railway officials came to him and informed that his reservation in 1st A/c has been cancelled and he has been allotted berth Nos.27 and 28 in a separate A/c 2 tier coach. He was also asked by the railway officials to alight from the said 1st class A/c coach. (iv) He informed the railway officials that his reservation has been confirmed from the Emergency Quota and nobody has a right to cancel the reservation of a Member of Parliament after the same has been confirmed. He also requested them to allow him to travel in the 1st class A/c coach as he had to attend an important meeting at Jodhpur. (v) Despite his requests he was made to detrain from the 1st class A/c coach. As the train left immediately thereafter he had to go to Jodhpur by air. (vi) In the reserved 1st class A/C coach while about 12 people were traveling, only his reservation was cancelled. (vii) The person who was provided reservation against his confirmed berth was to travel from Jaipur to Jodhpur. (viii) The railway officials have intentionally insulted him and deprived him of his rights and privileges as a Member of Parliament. The member contended that this amounted to a breach of his privileges/rights and sought action against the erring railway officials. 12. The Minister of State for Railways addressed a letter dated 1 September, 2000 to the Secretary-General, Lok Sabha stating that the matter had been investigated by the railway authorities and enclosed a copy of the departmental investigation report explaining the circumstances which led to the deletion of the name of Shri Jaswant Singh Bishnoi, MP. The investigation report stated inter-alia as follows:- (i) Enquiries have revealed that there is a partial 1st AC coach running by 2461 Mandore Express which leaves Delhi at 21.00 hrs. and passes Jaipur at 2.35 hrs. reaching Jodhpur at 08.00 hrs. The total number of berths available in this partial 1st AC coach are only ten. There are two cabins A& B with four berths each and a coupe C having two berths. Out of these ten berths, eight berths are booked on the counter and the remaining two berths are earmarked as Emergency Quota. On 11.8.200, all the eight berths available for booking across the counters were booked in favour of two families viz., Shri P. Gupta & family of four and Shri J.K. Jain & family of four. Both these families were provided accommodation in cabins A & B respectively. (ii) The Emergency Quota of two berths is jointly controlled by Northern Railway Headquarter and Ministry of Railways. The details of the Ministers/MPs who are booked in the PHBO (Parliament House Booking Office) are conveyed by the staff of PHBO to Northern Railway Headquarter for arranging reservations in their favour out of the EQ, etc. Similarly, the VIPs who book in the IRCA Reservation Office, their details are also conveyed by IRCA Reservation Office to N. Rly. Headquarter for providing reservation out of the Emergency Quota. Such requests received by Northern Rly. Headquarter are compiled by them and the VIPs including MPs are provided accommodation from the Emergency Quota or by attaching additional coach, if necessary. (iii) On 11.8.2000, there was heavy rush for travel of VIPs including MPs on account of ensuing holidays for four days. In the various requests conveyed by PHBO to Northern Railway Headquarter giving details of the VIPs and MPs traveling by various trains, two of the requests were to provide Ist AC coupe in favour of Shri Jaswant Singh Bishnoi, MP and his spouse and Shri R.K. Verma, MP and spouse who were required to travel from Delhi to Jodhpur by 2461 Mandore Express of 11.8.2000. The Emergency Quota of two berths in Ist AC was relased by Northern Rly. Headquarter in favour of Shri Jaswant Singh Bishnoi and his spouse. Shri R.K. Verma was given quota in AC 2 tier (However, he got his reservation cancelled before chart printing). (iv) The two berths in 1st AC released in favour of the Honble MP and his spouse were consequently fed into the computer by the staff of charting cell of Northern Railway. (v) After printing of the charts and during checking which is a normal practice so as to ensure that the quotas have been correctly fed into the computer and no VIPs are left out, it was detected by the staff of charting cell of Northern Rly., that Shri P.P. Naolekar, Honble Justice of High Court of Rajasthan who was booked to travel by the same train from Jaipur to Jodhpur in 1 st AC was not provided any confirmed accommodation (vi) Since the Honble Justice of High Court enjoys a higher position vis--vis the MP in the Warrant of Precedence issued by the President Secretariat, the staff of charting cell brought to the notice of the staff of Northern Railway Headquarter that the Honble Justice of High Court who was booked to travel by this train has not been provided any accommodation and sought their guidance in the matter. (vii) Considering the status of the High Court Judge and his position in the Warrant of Precedence vis--vis the Member of Parliament, the staff of Northern Railway Headquarter informed their counterpart in the charting cell to provide Ist AC coupe to the Honble Judge by deleting the name of the Honble MP manually, if necessary. To enable the Honble MP to travel by the same train, two berths in AC sleeper coach (A-1 27 & 28) were, however, provided in his favour. (viii) It would be seen from the facts, stated above, that due priority was given for providing accommodation to the Honble MP while releasing accommodation out of the Emergency Quota. The subsequent circumstances led to the manual deletion of his confirmed reservation allotted to him out of EQ.